1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that controls job processing on the basis of authentication, a computer-readable recording medium that stores job processing program codes, and a job processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to improve security in printers, multifunction peripherals, and other devices, an authentication function has been introduced into many image forming apparatuses in order to authenticate print data received from unspecific host computers.
Such an image forming apparatus having the authentication function verifies a user information element contained in a job (print data) against a user information element registered in advance in the main body of the apparatus or an outside source. The authentication function permits the job to be output if the user information elements match each other. By contrast, if the two user information elements do not match, an error is indicated and job processing for the job is stopped.
In response to a predetermined operation following occurrence of an error, the job is deleted, and the error indication is removed.
Such an image forming apparatus may operate on a single job (hereinafter referred to as a high job) into which a plurality of jobs (hereinafter referred to as low jobs) is combined in the process of job processing. This internal processing improves the efficiency of data processing. Typically, users are unaware of how this processing proceeds.
Accordingly, in order to process such a plurality of jobs, the above image forming apparatus needs a plurality of authentication actions corresponding to the number of low jobs. If a high job contains even one low job that cannot establish its authenticity, the high job cannot be properly authenticated. Therefore the entire job processing is stopped. That is, even one improper low job contained in a high job affects processing for other proper low jobs.
To address this problem, a printer that can cancel only a specific part of a single print job has been disclosed. Similarly, a job processing apparatus that can cancel a specific document contained in a multiple-document job has been disclosed.
Unfortunately, with the above techniques, a human needs to identify an area to be cancelled, in which an authentication error occurs (e.g., a low job that cannot establish its authenticity).
As a result, every time an authentication error occurs, a tedious operation is required. In particular, this tendency is strong for jobs having a large number of tasks or an enormous amount of data.